Atomic Mage

by Garrett Carter

  He healed the damage but the mental body of the slaver stayed deathly still on the ground.

  "Braindead,"

  Cade shivered in disgust as the memory of the poor woman and the guard the slaver had abused and tortured surfaced in his mind.

  Not finding any reason to keep him around any longer, he mulched what was left of Oren's brain.

  He was forcibly ejected from the man's mind as he died, providing no answers to his question of an afterlife.

  Looking over to the wizard on the ground, he hopped into the wizard's mind much more gently than he had with Oren.

  He settled into puppet the wizard to his home for a more comfortable interrogation.

  Cade used his power to quickly strip the bodies down cursing to himself as he forgot what happens to bodies after they die.

  The corpses all had shit themselves after their deaths, coating all the pants and some of the shirts of the dead slavers.

  Removing the mess was too much of an effort for him to bother with, most of the gear unlikely to fit him.

  He took the clothes and leather armor not covered by shit, along with the weapons and the packs.

  Looking to the river he remembered the barge they rode in on.

  He shrugged before reaching out with his abilities to drag the from the water and setting it against the cliff a few feet from his door.

  Looking at his puppet Cade freed his head from the neck up.

  "If you can understand me I want you to nod your head."

  The wizard nodded his head slowly in reply.

  A smile crossed his face as he cheered internally as his experiment with copying the languages the lizard man had known was proven to be a success.

  "Good let us head inside and have a talk."

  Walking into his home Cade left the door open to let the wizard walk in.

  Closing it behind his puppet he pointed to one of the chairs at his kitchen table.

  The wizard sat in it with a sneer directed at Cade which disappeared with a mental push from a smirking Cade.

  "Good boy now stay while I take care of something real quick."

  As he finished the command he removed the wizard's physical freedom, removing control over his body with a thought.

  Cade placed all the gear from the slavers in the living room to go over at his leisure.

  Getting some water from the fridge and a couple of cups he sat down across from the wizard and drank from his cup and decided how he wanted to start.

  "Now I have been calling you the wizard in my head since I hopped in yours, it is exhausting. You are going to tell me your name, your real name mind you, and what flavor of magician you are to start with then we will get to the hard questions sound good."

  As soon as he released the wizard from his power there was a veritable tsunami of word vomit flying out of his mouth.

  Wide-eyed and holding up his hands he caught two things the wizard's name which happened to be Kazart or Kaz for short he was 18 a water mage and he missed all the rest.

  Seizing Kaz's head with his power Cade pulled him up short stemming the tide.

  "OK, that was nice and answered my questions. I am going to ask you a few questions about those mental defenses I ran into."

  A look of hope ran across Kaz's face that he found so funny that he almost didn't want to bust the boy's bubble, almost.

  He hopped into the boy's head and blew through his mental shields watching Kaz's face fall as he sat in the distraught boy's literal skull.

  "Let us not misunderstand each other l can do this whenever I want so don't get any ideas."

  Thinking back to the memories of the slavers he had killed, Cade decided to peruse Kaz's to determine how he was going to handle the little sorcerer.

  Gripping the boy in his power once more to prevent any mischief he did a deep dive into Kaz's memories.

  What he found surprised him and didn't at the same time.

  Kaz was a cruel child a certifiable sadist, a bully in his home village, the little shit had a mean streak a mile long but not enough to truly enjoy the killing that came with the job description of a slaver.

  The torture he had a ball with, a feeling of childlike glee suffusing all the memories of torture Cade had come upon.

  He was also pretty new to the job this being his first official outing to do said "job".

  He had spent the better part of two weeks begging to go out and “raid the tribes" as they called it.

  Not knowing whether to roll his eyes at the boy's eagerness to go out and make himself a name or crush his skull and be done with it he continued flipping through the boy's memories.

  Kaz had been kicked out of his village after being caught one too many times extorting and savagely beating his marks for a few more coins for his pockets or when coin wasn't in the offering the rush of power he got from the beatings he gave out.

  Cade could understand that rush he had some of that adrenaline running through his system right now from easily handling the six slavers.

  The difference between them was at the end of the day he wouldn't choose to go looking for that thrill and was just as happy turning the other cheek as long as his or those he considered his were not threatened.

  Moving to more recent events Cade found the memories dealing with the slavers camp, something he already knew from Oren's memories but he was glad to have it verified.

  It was a squalid place just a mud tracked clearing lined with cages surrounded by a few slapped together buildings.

  More than a few of the cages containing all sorts of fantasy creatures some he could see were most likely sentient by the look in their eyes of fear, terror, and despair.

  Gritting his teeth in anger he continued through the, so far morally bankrupt but not unfixable young man's memories.

  Finding the one he was looking for he zeroed on the leader of this encampment a tall muscular female orc named Rista.

  She was a piece of work, a true devil in the flesh.

  From Kaz's memories, she reveled in the pain and suffering of the sentient beings she had captured.

  Cade studied her through Kaz's memories she was attractive with a brutish charm about her, pretty enough face if you didn't mind scars, long black greasy hair that reached her mid-back, a cut muscular body with heavy breasts in a chest wrap, and a slim waist leading to well-defined legs that were covered slightly below mid-thigh with a leather skirt.

  An attractive woman indeed, too bad she was as repulsive to Cade as the shit lining the dead slaver's pants outside.

  He barked out a laugh as he caught a flash of her and Kas fucking, she was riding Kaz into the floor her heavy breasts swinging freely as she came all down the young man's dick.

  Following this, he discovered she had popped the boy's cherry.

  "Well good for you bud."

  As he pulled the last of the information he wanted about their operation out of the boy's head he felt Kaz start fighting his grip on him.

  Coming out of Kaz's mind he looked the boy in the eye.

  "What do you think bud should I pay your 60, oh I'm sorry 54 man crew a visit."

  Damsel in distress

  After leaving his home with Kaz in tow a few hours later, Cade secured his home against unwanted visitors by sealing the door with a pulse of power.

  Using Kaz as a pack mule he had the disgruntled slaver pack the remaining rations from him and his buddies trip to get their asses handed to them by Cade onto the barge.

  He had flashbacks of his teenagers as he let Kaz vent his anger with grunts, groans, and aggrieved sighs as he pointed to where he wanted the equipment to go with a grin.

  "Who's a good boy, you're a good boy." He said as Kaz finished with the last bit of gear.

  He couldn't help the smile that grew on his face as he teased the young man.

  Kaz almost launched himself at Cade before he was brought up short as Cade removed the slaver's freedom of movement once again.

  "Bad Kaz bad boy, now sit and think abo
ut what you did." He said to the fuming slaver as Kaz's body, puppeted by Cade, followed his instructions against his will.

  He chuckled to himself as he joined the young man in the boat, if looks could kill then he would be dead a dozen times over but in his case they could and the slaver would be smart to remember that.

  As the unlikely duo floated upriver on the slaver's barge a day later, Cade contemplated how he was going to deal with the slaver camp when they reached it.

  With a small part of his attention left in Kaz's head and another part pushing the barge against the swift current of the river and still another part scanning the river banks to each side for danger as they passed he was amazed he still had the mental fortitude to even attempt to make plans.

  He he spared a glance at Kaz as he felt his younger companion's thoughts twisting and turning.

  Kaz had been pretty subdued during the night, especially after Cade had chained him to the iron loops built into the craft for just that purpose.

  The young man had one incident where thankfully Cade had heard his mumblings and clamped his mouth shut before Kaz had completed whatever spell that he had been planning to use.

  The night went by much smoother after that, Kaz's lips being fused together preventing the little mage from trying to cast any more spells.

  The thoughts of painful revenge that slipped out were quickly stopped followed by quick glances toward Cade.

  Grinning at the outwardly subdued but inwardly rebelling teen, Cade was amused by the 18-year-olds thoughts.

  The same rebellious spirit as most teens, if a bit more bloodthirsty.

  A faint but potent feeling of impotent rage cut through his thoughts a few hours after dawn the next morning.

  He initially thought they came from Kaz but the slaver's thoughts at that moment were leaning more towards skinning his captor alive after the lip sealing he got from Cade last night.

  He felt like the angsty teen should have gotten over it by now, he had unsealed his lips earlier so the ungrateful brat could eat.

  Rolling his eyes Cade reasoned there was no making some people happy, and refocused on the strong emotions he was feeling.

  Glancing in the direction he felt the intense feelings coming from, Cade turned the boat towards the shore closet to their source.

  Running aground he sent a quick series of instructions to Kaz through the thread of power in his head.

  "Follow me, don't try anything stupid or you WILL die."

  Leaving the slaver on the barge would be a gamble that he didn't want to take.

  He could stay connected to Kaz easily, ready to stop him from escaping with their only mode of easy transportation through the thickly forested jungle.

  He reasoned a lengthy enough distraction though was all it would take for the young man to shove off with the craft.

  So he stepped off the barge, forcing the slaver to follow him into the tree line.

  Trailed by a suspiciously compliant Kaz, Cade followed the feeling to what he assumed was a small slaver scout camp for his target 100 miles upriver.

  Kaz's objections to the contrary notwithstanding.

  He found a faint path that curved around a bend in the thick jungle as he and his charge came across a small camp in disarray.

  A few dead bodies littered the ground, mismatched armor covering the fly and maggot covered corpses.

  Cade looked around the destroyed camp finding a pile of four bodies the slowly fading rage was coming from.

  Lifting bodies with his power he saw a pitch black-furred tail revealed as he lifted the first body.

  Bracing to defend against an angry and wounded jungle cat that had gotten into the camp he continued his corpse removal.

  Looking over the corpses he was removing he invariably found throats slashed, eyes missing, and one with a massive hole where its windpipe used to be.

  "Didn't know what hit them" Cade mused as he lifted the last body, a particularly large one with his guts hanging out, his abdomen torn to shreds.

  As he got to the bottom of the pile he was surprised to find that the large jungle cat he expected to find was in fact a short black-furred cat woman laying on her side.

  Finding her as the reason he was here Cade was further surprised to find her still alive even if just barely.

  Kneeling next to her he started looking over her injuries, deciding to stabilize her and see what happened here a day's ride from his new home.

  Scanning her injuries a quickly as possible he found the most serious to be her bowels that had been perforated by three arrows.

  Removing the three broken arrow shafts in her gut while healing the damaged intestinal tissue elicited a weak yowl from the delirious cat woman.

  He almost leaped back from his patient, ready to fend off her lethal claws.

  The panther woman remained still though, clearly out of it.

  Cade blew out a breath and glared at Kaz who was attempting to hide his mirth at his flinch away from the clearly unconscious woman.

  Applying a less than gentle smack to the back of Kaz's head with a small branch Cade got back to work on the panther woman's injuries.

  The damage repaired he began the process of killing off the gut bacteria that was slowly eating the woman alive.

  Focused intently on his task he had all but forgotten his unwilling companion on this little excursion.

  His inattention cost him as Cade was violently reminded that Kaz was there.

  His upper back was suddenly drenched in a foul-smelling liquid as a hot burning sensation followed the horrible rotten egg smell.

  He grunted in pain as what he assumed was acid ate through his shirt quickly and began to eat into the flesh of his back.

  He threw off his shirt watching the fabric melt under the power of the corrosive liquid.

  Healing the chemical burns and lifting the suicidal slaver off his feet took less than a second.

  "That was a mistake, Kaz." Cade said as he turned around and looked into the terrified eyes of the man who had just tried to turn him into a puddle of good.

  The skin of his back was healed but the searing pain felt like it was still there, eating away at his flesh.

  He was not so proud as to deny his next actions might have been a little petty but the asshole had been a pain in his ass since he had captured him.

  Deciding turnabout was fair play he began breaking down the bonds holding Kaz's body together from the bottom up.

  As Kaz screamed in agony, his disbelieving expression locked on Cade's mostly neutral one, as his feet melted into a pile of foul-smelling goop gave Cade a modicum of petty pleasure.

  As Kaz continued to scream Cade decided he had better things to do after a few moments of viewing Kaz's execution.

  Tired of the screaming from the murdering slaver he scrambled the boy's brain and let the partially disintegrated body drop with a small sigh of relief, glad to not have to watch his back any longer.